Trouble Brewing

by Suzanne Baltsar

  “Dirty martini, extra olives. And put it on Blake’s tab.”

  My eyebrows rose in curiosity. This woman obviously knew Blake well. From her familiarity with everyone and the way she looked, I assumed maybe they were together. But it didn’t matter to me.

  Not really.

  I had no claim on Blake. We weren’t together. We were partners in business, that was it.

  Although . . . I had to find out who she was. You know, for curiosity’s sake. When I cleared my throat and she didn’t acknowledge me, I tried another tack. “Excuse me?”

  She didn’t take her eyes off her phone. “Yeah?”

  “You know Blake?”

  She nodded, answering distractedly. “He’s my brother.”

  Oh. A little bit embarrassed, a little bit happy, a little bit confused. Ever since my relationship with Oskar, I’d had a bad habit of underestimating myself. Most of the time it was in this career that I’d chosen, but sometimes with men, too. I didn’t think I was good enough, and it snuck up at the worst times, like now, next to a woman I didn’t think I could compare to.

  With a heavy sigh, I took a big gulp of my beer and kept myself busy with my cell phone. I pulled up Twitter and read through a couple of things before I found an interesting tweet from @BeerasaurusRex. He was a local guy who ran a blog on craft beers. And he was apparently at the Public tonight. He’d posted a picture of a flight, listing the names of each one. And there at the end was my Natural Red!

  I smiled to myself, giddy inside. My leg bounced as I continued to read the reviews of each beer until he got to mine.

  @BeerasaurusRex The Natural Red is from @OutOfTheBottleBrewery and a little too malty for a real Amber. Seems it isn’t so natural after all. Should go back in the bottle.

  My gut flopped. He didn’t like it. My first review was a thumbs-down, and if I hadn’t been in front of so many people I’d probably have cried. I tried to shake it off, but the longer I sat at the bar, the more edgy I became. I turned back to Tim’s table, noticing that all of the men there had their heads bent together. To my left, some random guy was staring at me, and I tried to think if I recognized him or not. A couple directly behind me whispered. Was BeerasaurusRex one of them?

  I felt claustrophobic.

  I needed to leave.

  I stood up and waved to Bear, Connor, and their friends. “It was nice seeing you again.”

  “You’re leaving already?” Bear asked, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. “You just got here.”

  “Past my bedtime.” I smiled, hoping that it seemed genuine. I didn’t want Blake’s friends to know I was the tiniest bit humiliated.

  “Are you sure?” Bear scanned the bar. “You barely had time to talk to Blake.”

  “It’s fine,” I said, stepping away from him. “I’ve gotta go.”

  But Bear wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. He motioned to Blake, who was quickly approaching. “Yo, your girl here is leaving already.”

  “What?” Blake whipped his head to me, his hand on my waist. “Really?”

  I shouldn’t have liked him touching me, but I did. Still, I stepped away from his embrace. A girl had to hold her ground. “Yeah. You’ve got your friends here . . .”

  “I don’t care about them,” he said, dragging me away from the group. “It’s still early yet. Not even nine o’clock.”

  “I know. I had a long day,” I lied. “And there’s so many people here it’s kind of like . . .” I extended my fingers and pretended to scream.

  Blake actually smiled. “It’s crazy, right? It’s packed, but that’s great.”

  I nodded and put my jacket on. “Thanks for inviting me tonight.” I slung my purse over my arm. “I had a great time. I’m sure you’re going to have a ton of success here.”

  I tried to run-walk as fast as I could out of the door, but with my heels I was more like a toddler learning to walk for the first time, and Blake easily caught up to me just outside the door. He grabbed my elbow.

  “Hey. Hey.”

  I turned to him, and he took his time staring at me, his gaze bouncing all over my face. It was my favorite quality about him. When he looked at me, he really looked at me.

  “Piper, I wish you didn’t have to leave yet, I’d like to—”

  I don’t know what came over me, but I stood up on my toes, leaned in to his cheek, and kissed the place where his dimple usually resided. His breath caught, and he held on to both of my arms, keeping me in place, then suddenly his lips were on mine.

  And I traveled to a different world. One where no one else existed but Blake and me. I felt myself falling further and further into this universe where there was no noise, no other people, no light or dark, just us, kissing forever.

  Then reality crashed in on us when the door to the bar opened with a loud bang. I jolted back, feeling the weight of eyes on me. And they didn’t belong to Blake.

  I turned to my left and there was Tim. He did a double take at me, his eyes narrowing when he realized what I was doing. I dropped my head down, desperate to come up with an excuse. Anything to explain away this kiss. But before I could come up with something, Tim cleared his throat. “Going to introduce me?”

  I took a breath and met his stare. “Blake, this is Tim, head brewer at Twin Cities Brew Company and my old boss. Tim, this is Blake, my . . .”

  Blake reached for Tim’s outstretched hand and filled in the blank. “I’m the owner,” he said, pointing to the Public.

  “Oh.” Tim looked between the two of us before saying to Blake, “Nice place.”

  “Thanks.”

  I shifted my weight during the awkward pause that lasted a lifetime, until Tim broke it up. “I had your Brunette tonight. Working on anything new?”

  “Not right now. Just focused on getting my name out there,” I said.

  Tim nodded, his silence saying more than any words could. He’d been somewhat of a mentor to me when I worked for him, and I knew whatever it was he’d seen tonight, he didn’t like. I trusted Tim; he was smart and honest, sometimes a little too honest. He was hard on me, but in a good way. He’d forced me to be strong, to not back down when I was faced with criticism. He’d also introduced me to a lot of people and pushed me to go out on my own. If he thought something fishy was going on, I’d lose the faith of not only him, but a lot of other people he had influence over.

  “Well,” he said after a while, putting his hand on my shoulder. “It was good seeing you.” Then to Blake, “Nice meeting you.”

  He gave me one more look, a warning. It told me to focus. Stay in my lane. Avoid drama. Basically the opposite of what I had been doing just now.

  As soon as Tim was out of earshot, Blake wrapped his hand around my wrist. “Piper, I—”

  “Don’t.”

  “You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”

  “Whatever it is, don’t. You can’t say it. I can’t hear it. And we certainly can’t kiss again.”

  Blake let go of me with a curt “Fine.”

  But I didn’t have time to be bothered with petting his bruised ego. I needed to rescue my own. Keep my train from falling off the tracks. Not only had I kissed Blake when I’d expressly said it wouldn’t happen, but I’d done it out in the open, where anyone could see.

  I darted away, headed home to my bed and hopefully a new start tomorrow.

  CHAPTER 9

  Piper

  Sonja!” I slammed the front door. “You’d better be awake!” I ran upstairs, tripping over Leo, lounging below the top step. “Seriously?”

  He eyed me, unmoving, as I stepped over him into the hallway and down to Sonja’s room. I barged in without knocking, and she looked up at me from her spot on the floor, legs straddled. “Are you trying to wake the neighborhood with your screaming?”

  “If it wasn’t for your incredibly fit body, I’d think you were a ninety-year-old, in bed by eight o’clock.”

  “I’m not in bed,” she said, pointing to the carpet. “And it’s not eig
ht o’clock.”

  “Nine-twenty-three. Close enough.” I flopped on her bed, looking up at her ceiling.

  “So how was it?”

  “Horrible.”

  “Why? What happened?”

  I turned onto my stomach, watching as she shook her legs out and brought them straight in front of her, flexing and pointing her feet. “BeerasaurusRex hated my beer and Blake kissed me.”

  “What? Wait.” She hopped up onto her knees, face screwed up. “One thing at a time. What is a Beerasaurus?”

  “He’s a beer blogger who tweeted about me. He didn’t like my beer.”

  She sneered. “His name is Beerasaurus?”

  I nodded. “Rex. BeerasaurusRex. And he didn’t like me.”

  “He gave your beer a bad review, not you.”

  “Same thing.”

  She rolled her head in a circle before looking at me. “Not the same thing. He doesn’t like your beer. And he’s stupid. Next.” A laugh escaped me when she waved her hand at Beerasaurus like a gnat. “You kissed Blake.”

  “Well . . .” I bit my lip. “Technically he kissed me.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing. Was it bad? Does he kiss like a Saint Bernard?” She visibly shivered. “Remember that guy, Rob, who looked like Steph Curry? He was a sloppy kisser. A real shame.”

  I shook my head. “No. It was good. Fantastic.” I laid my head on my arm. “Probably the best kiss I’ve ever had.”

  Sonja scooted closer to the bed, laying her head near mine. “Explain. Are you sure you know the definition of horrible?”

  I let out a groan along with some of my worry. “Tim saw us.”

  “What? I can’t understand you when your face is smooshed in the mattress.”

  I propped my chin on my hand. “We were outside having this moment, and Tim walked out.”

  “Tim as in your boss from Twin Cities, Tim?”

  “It was so embarrassing.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Again I ask: did you have spit hanging from your mouth or what?”

  “Ew, no. Why do you think everyone kisses like an animal?”

  “So what’s the big deal?” She shrugged. “You kissed a cute guy. You should be excited.” She poked my arm. “You need to stop worrying about what other people think. God forbid you act like a woman and not a robot who brews beer all the time.”

  That was the pot calling the kettle black. Sonja was 100 percent focused on her goals, rarely leaving time for anything else, including men. “Oh, okay, Miss I-can’t-go-out-because-of-my-6-a.m.-workout.”

  She narrowed her eyes at me. “Hey, there’s nothing wrong with being scheduled. I make time for guys; they just need to fit into the fifteen minutes I have free.”

  “A real wild thing you are.”

  “Come on. Meditate with me, it’ll make you feel better.” When I groaned like I was in pain, she pulled my hand, and I ungracefully rolled off the bed and into her lap. “It’ll relax you,” she said, looking at me upside down.

  It didn’t. Not the meditation I did with Sonja, not the hot bath I took, and not the white noise I tried listening to so I could fall asleep. After midnight, I gave up and grabbed my phone to stalk Blake on every social media platform there was. He was a popular guy, and there were plenty of pictures to look at, Facebook statuses to decipher.

  When I finally forced myself to turn my phone off hours later, I tossed and turned, my brain unable to shut down. My mind couldn’t stop replaying tonight. I remembered the way he’d held me and the scent of his cologne. I could still feel his lips on mine and where his fingertips had touched my cheek.

  In any other place, in any other time, I would’ve jumped at the chance to go out with Blake. But at this point, when I had four tastings lined up for bars, and a brew festival, I needed to keep my head down and to keep working. Now wasn’t the time to start a relationship, especially with someone who could influence my career in a particularly negative way.

  By the time I fell asleep, the sky had started to turn gray with the rising sun, so I only got about three hours of shut-eye. I dragged myself out of bed to make a cup of coffee. I wasn’t much of a caffeine person, but I needed it to help me get through the next couple of hours while I brewed.

  When I went to open the refrigerator, I saw a note stuck on with a bumblebee magnet, written in Sonja’s loopy cursive. “ ‘I’ll be home around noon,’ ” I read out loud to myself. “ ‘Don’t eat the chicken.’ ” It was signed with a smiley face.

  I was half-tempted to eat the chicken just to piss her off. Sonja was a terrific cook, and always made extra for me, but she stuck to a specific meal calendar. One too many complex carbohydrates and her whole day was thrown off. And she told me I needed to relax?

  I laughed to myself and stepped outside to start my day. Opening up the garage, I took a deep, calming breath. Brewing was my real meditation. With music on, I didn’t have to think as I got to work sanitizing my equipment in order to brew another batch of Platinum Blonde.

  From start to finish it took about six hours until I got it into the fermenter, but I got a little break as the wort boiled. I set my timer for sixty minutes and sat down, intending to cut out labels for bottles. I had only gotten through a few pages when my cell phone rang. It was Tim.

  And like that my zen was gone.

  I punched the green Accept button, ready with a cheerful greeting, hoping he was calling to congratulate me on my first sale, but I had a feeling that wasn’t the case. “Hey, Tim, miss me since last night?” I joked. He hummed a hello, and I braced myself for this conversation. “So, what’s up?”

  Tim was never one to pull punches, and he certainly didn’t pull any this time. “I gotta tell you, I was really surprised by what I saw between you and Blake last night.”

  I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say.

  “You know you’re the first and only woman to ever work at Twin Cities,” he said.

  “I know.”

  “You’re very talented at what you do.”

  “Thank you.”

  “So why would you think it’s a good idea to get wrapped up with Blake Reed?”

  I didn’t necessarily think it was a good idea, but the way he seemed to be scolding me only made me want to argue. “To be honest, Tim, I wasn’t thinking about much last night when you walked out of the Public. But it’s really none of your business, is it?”

  “I’ve vouched for you.”

  “So?” I huffed.

  “Your beer is good. You don’t need any help from anyone.”

  “That’s a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one. I’m not getting help from Blake or anyone else.” I began to pace, my pulse picking up with the need to defend myself.

  “You have to understand how it looked from my point of view, Piper. What if someone else walked out? What if it was another bar owner, and he expected the same thing to stock your beer in his bar?”

  “That’d be a pretty awful person, wouldn’t it? I don’t associate with awful people or men who sexually harass women.”

  He was quiet for a few moments while my temper rose.

  “Piper, I don’t care about your personal life. Truly, I don’t. But I do care about you.”

  I breathed in my nose and out my mouth, like Sonja told me to all the time. Yes, Tim had been my boss, a really good one at that, but I’d earned my position at Twin Cities. The fact that he, of all people, would insinuate anything else was beyond insulting. I didn’t appreciate him treating me like I couldn’t decide for myself what I should or should not do. Like I didn’t know what it was like to be a woman in this field.

  “I shouldn’t have to tell you that when you’re the sole proprietor, everything comes back to you. You’re the creator and the salesperson. You need to be above the fray at all times.”

  “I also don’t need this business mansplained to me.”

  “I don’t know what that means.”

  “Of course you don’t.” I laugh
ed. “You said it yourself, I was the only woman to ever work at Twin Cities. I’m usually the only woman anywhere when it comes to brewing, so please don’t tell me about how things look from your perspective. I’m well aware of what men think about me, no matter what I do, whether it’s true or not.”

  “Piper, I didn’t mean to—”

  “Just forget it.” I sliced my hand through the air. “I appreciate your concern, but I can take care of myself. I don’t make any decisions lightly.”

  He hummed again. “Well, I guess that’s it then. It was good seeing you, Piper. Good luck with everything. Really, I mean it.”

  “Thanks.” I hung up and sunk into my chair, my adrenaline wearing off. I doubted myself sometimes, struggling with my confidence, but when push came to shove, I was able to fight when I needed to.

  I went back to cutting labels, trying to blow off steam. With each snip of the paper cutter, my anger dropped a notch. I was almost even-keeled, but when my alarm went off it skyrocketed again.

  “Son of a—” I jumped up, going to the boiling pot. I’d missed my hop schedule, throwing off this batch. “Dammit!”

  I created my recipes after a lot of tests and had them down to a science. But because I lacked automatic equipment, I had to manually be precise in every detail so each beer from the same line tasted the same. One too many malts or not enough fermentation time would affect the flavor. Or in this case, missing the time to put the Lemondrop hops in the boil would completely change this Platinum Blonde batch.

  It might be good to drink, but if it wasn’t consistent with my brand, I couldn’t sell it. It was a complete waste of money, time, and resources.

  I wanted to scream or pull my hair out.

  But I did neither as I turned the boiler down. Maybe I could gift this off-brand beer to my friends as birthday presents. I chilled the brew and poured it into the fermenter before cleaning up and heading back inside, cursing Tim, the phone call, this day, the whole weekend.

  I wasn’t in the right head space, too jumbled up with thoughts of Blake and Out of the Bottle. Sonja walked into the kitchen right after me, tossed her Beats headphones on the counter, and plopped her gym bag on the floor.